We were up early for a morning walk on the beach to look for shells and were blessed with a very beautiful sunrise. Strange to see the sun rise over the water here on the west side of the state but if you see where we are on the map it does make sense.

Sunrise at St. George State Park, FL

Then we went to see the Cape St. George Lighthouse. This light has been through four re-constructions since its origin in 1833. The latest one no so long ago.

Cape St. George Lighthouse

After Hurricane Opal in 1995 the lighthouse began to lean 7.5 degrees from vertical and then with more years of erosion the lighthouse collapsed in 2005. There is a small museum that shows all about the light’s history and how volunteers salvaged the original bricks, cleaned them up, and used them to line the inside walls of the new lighthouse that was built in 2008.

Cape St. George Lighthouse

The light was rebuilt with plans for the 1852 lighthouse obtained from the National Archives in Washington DC and was completed in 2008.

Cape St. George Lighthouse

For $5 each we were allowed inside. It’s only 92 steps to the top, but then there’s a little ladder to climb up into the light room.

Cape St. George Lighthouse

After lunch in town we returned to the campground and walked a nature trail over the swamps and through the woods. It was a longer walk than we thought but we did manage to return to camp before it got dark. Darn those short days! Which reminds me, winter solstice is today so now the days will start getting longer again. Yay!

St. George State Park Nature Trail

The temp rose to around 70 and it was very very humid..but no bugs, which is good. The breeze from the Gulf helped to cool us.